Friday, October 28, 2011

Did words have totally different meanings in the 70's? Because when I think about lyrics like that or "it's the dawning of the age of Aquarius" or "I'd like to be, under the sea, in an Octopus' garden, in the shade" I really have to wonder.

It's probably what the people of the future will say about LOLcats and The Real Housewives of (fill in the blank). I mean, really - are we implying there are fake housewives somewhere?

You can really confuse yourself if you think about these things long enough.

What I'm NOT confused about is being SO completely stoked to be the Featured Fan on the CPS blog today!! I'd really like to be Tami Mayberry when I grow up. She is a bottomless well of inspiration!

The second I saw this week's sketch I knew who was going in that little circle too!!!

Ooooh, hoooo witchy woman, see how high she fli - i - ies... Sorry - I slipped back into the 70s lyrics. This sketch was CRYING out for my sweet little witchie, don't you think??

Monday, October 24, 2011

We all know that the only way to get anything done is to bribe a politician, and so I need enough money to bribe one or two.

My cause is great.

I WANT TO ABOLISH TIME CHANGES!

Look - because I'm so befuddled by these STUPID time changes twice a year, which not only make me question the nature of time, relativity and our place in the universe, but also make me VERY cranky - I honestly don't care WHICH time needs to go away - the DST, the non-DST, whatever!!

It just needs to go away. There is no reason in the world that 7 AM should suddenly become 6 AM or 8 AM based on what a governing body decides.

The SUN decides our days, and time should not change because there's something some ding dong in Washington wants it to be dark while he's doing something shady.

Like taking a bribe.

From me.

To end it once and for all.

So please send me bribe money and I'll take care of it so we can all be happy like people in Arizona are. You're welcome.

Now in the light that is allotted to me by the government, I decided to experiment last week for Libby's Hope You Can Cling To challenge, which was to use paint, in honor of her grandmother, a breast cancer survivor.

I love all things painty, and I wanted to do something different from my normal acrylic/gesso type projects, so I chose Smooch for my card.

I took Moonlight Smooch and painted it on the background from Creative Elements. Look how finely detailed the paint stays!

I learned the coolest tip from my beloved Mel last week!! I have never gotten used to my reverse tweezer thingies. They just break my brain. It's like when you're playing one of those flight simulator games and pulling up on the controller makes the plane go down. They just don't make sense to my paws.

HOWEVER, the brilliant, lovely and talented Mel posted about using them as a third hand when you are tying ribbon and BEHOLD!!!

Where have I BEEN?? This is such a breakthrough for me and my poorly tied bows.

To celebrate this discovery, I thought I'd share some fun items from the Blue List for you for this week.

Since I was in the closet, I got out one of my fave cookbooks that I own to make the biscuit topped spinach/chicken pie. MMM. I've had this cookbook since 1992 and it has some of the best recipes. I adapted my own amazing meatloaf recipe from one in this book. I need to give some love to my old cookbooks.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

I am a very happy, easygoing girl. I'm the youngest. That's how we roll.

I try not to take myself or life in general too seriously.

But sometimes I am interrupted in my easygoingness, and it's worth noting, I think.

One day in 1988, after a particularly challenging set of final exams that I was proud of my performance on, I was one of the few remaining students on the University of Rochester campus before the campus shut down for Christmas break.
My dad was the king of bargain travel, and frequently purchased tickets for me on odd airlines that cost $19, stopped four times between New York and Texas, and allowed chickens in the aisles.

Okay - the chickens are an exaggeration, but the rest is true.

Anyway, I had some odd travel schedules for this reason, and I really, really enjoyed my beautiful, empty campus when I left after everyone else.

This, not Osama bin Laden, was my introduction to terrorism. A person I knew - a student at my tiny private school - a school with fewer undergrads than there were students at my high school - was killed by Qadaffi. Or however you spell his name.

So today, I hope that Eric's family finds some comfort, if not peace, in knowing that some tiny amount of human justice sits in the scales. I hope they know we all think of their children today, and have them in our prayers.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

It's been kind of a creatureless year here in my drought stricken state. I haven't missed the mosquitos, I'm not gonna lie. But I have missed the butterflies and dragonflies and even the pillbugs. It's amazing how different my walks are without all that.

But I was THRILLED to see that the Monarch migration through Austin began this week. It was a magical Monday when I started to see them on my walk. When they come, they make a statement, and they're usually everywhere. They are so beautiful and, well, regal. Their markings are divinely perfect and they bumble around and land on you and just make everything prettier.

You really appreciate those little critters when you only see them once a year.

I'm also realizing, through a slow and painful reorganization and de-stashing of my stamping stuff, that the same is true for stamps. Now that I have a better system, I give more love to my older and under-used stamps. I have so many beautiful things - I need to use them and appreciate them.

So today I got out something I hardly ever stamp with - a set of Stampin' Up! incentive stamps - these are sets of 28 small stamps that demonstrators can buy to give away as incentives, and they are SUCH cool designs. But they sit in their boxes unused because I keep telling myself I'll give them away.

Well rest no more, little stamps!!

I decided to use one stamp from the Cute & Classic set to honor my fluttery friends for Wendy Weixler's Hope You Can Cling To challenge to use butterflies on a card. She chose butterflies because they are a symbol of hope, and I really can't think of a better image for this challenge.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Sunday came and she was suddenly very sick. Even her little cheeks were swollen. She didn't eat at all and just sat in my studio all day looking sort of glazed.

Then, whatever toxic creature she ate lost its hold on her late last night and she became herself again. I wonder if she remembers what it was so that she won't do it again. In all probability she will just eat another one and scare me to death soon. *sigh*

Now you can't really see on the big pic, but the bunny and the clouds are all sparkly with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch!!

I Smooched my customers at my class this weekend. :) And they LET me :)

Now you'll want to smooch me for this - don't forget we're giving away more than $7500 in prizes for Hope You Can Cling To - so come play in our daily challenges! We're even giving away a ScrapBox!! Yepper - you heard me right. :) And all you gotta do is make cards and send them to the breast cancer patients at MD Anderson! How about THEM apples?

Friday, October 14, 2011

But not BATS!! I love bats!! I know people are afraid they will get in their hair and stuff (sorry Tammy!!) but I think they're adorable. I'd totally have one for a pet. I wish they could walk around though - how cool would it be to whistle for your pet bat and have him run across the house to you?

Thursday, October 13, 2011

I'm sorry - I should have warned you before I informed you that there are, indeed, people in this world who do not craft things.

I hope you're okay and haven't fainted.

Anyway, sometimes I say or type things that I realize are probably truly frightening people who have never stamped into thinking I'm a serial killer.

Examples include:

I'm using a bone folder

Here are the pieces you will use for eyes

Punch the heads first

Cut off the legs before you stick it down

I'm embossing skeletons

The list goes on and on.

As I said, it's not all glitter and ribbons. Fear us. We are unpredictable and dangerous people. You should give us your credit cards and we will spare you.

I really was embossing a skeleton though. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanted to make a Halloween card to celebrate the day I put my pumpkins out and my wreath of bones on the door. Mwahahahahahahah!!

Sorry - I got caught up in that for a second. Anyway, I wanted to really liven up my skelly this time. I needed him to glow a bit. So here's what I did.

I used Basic Black craft ink and clear embossing powder to emboss the skelly from Piece of Poison on a piece of Basic Grey cardstock. I did the same for the Halloween greeting from Lighthearted, except I did that one on Basic Black cardstock.

I did the same with the greeting. The pen tip is really fine, so you can see the detail of the small pumpkin and the small print that says Halloween. Amazing, right? I'm super picky about my metallic pens and I've tried them ALL - I don't like the ones that rub off, or metallics that aren't REALLY bright metallics. These rock - the silver and the gold are downright SPOOKILY cool. I think I got them at Office Depot.

Now, Leslie, I apologize - Leslie hates closeups - but I did want to show you that it's really reflective and silvery, like my glimmer paper.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

This week, you may have noticed that TONS of your favorite stampers are joining together to support and encourage our friend and fellow stamper, Katie Renz, who is currently battling inoperable gastric cancer.

If you're not familiar with her, Katie’s cancer story started just before Christmas last year. This young, beautiful, healthy, vibrant mother of 3 with her infectious smile was suddenly diagnosed with an inoperable cancer, virtually overnight. A few tummy aches and then stage 4 gastric cancer.

Her first post about it is here. The idea of “Swimming for Katie” came from her recent post here.

This stamp used in my sample was designed by Becky Oehlers for this special fundraiser for Katie. Kate Baldwin was kind enough to set up a page where you can support Katie in a number of different ways, and 100% of the profits go to Katie's fund to help her and her young family. Her husband Kevin and her three young children need our help and support. To read more and donate something to help, please clickHERE or click the donation button below.

I hope you will be inspired by the stampers on this hop and moved to donate to her cause, and also to pray for Katie and her family in this difficult time.

Katie's bravery and candor through this journey have been astonishing, and I can't even imagine handling something so difficult with as much grace as she has.

I think one of the things I love most about the stamping community is our solidarity with one another in times of trouble, and this is certainly a shining example of that. Thank you in advance for whatever you can do for Katie.

Keep swimming to the other designers helping out the Renz family today! The full list is here!

I am always astonished at the number of people who go outside virtually nekkid to walk or run. It's pretty disturbing.

Here are my tips for my neighbors.

No matter how great you think you look, a nekkid sweaty neighbor with their sweaty bits violently bouncing around in plain view is pretty unappetizing at any time of day.

You don't look that great.

Do you realize you're actually outside your house right now? Because you are. Outside. In public. Nekkid. Sweaty. Bouncing.

A heart rate monitor is not a shirt in the classical sense. Plus, boys, it really makes you look like you're wearing a bra. Perhaps not the impression you were going for?

Likewise, ladies, a sports bra is not a shirt. I don't care how big a Madonna fan you are, put a shirt on. They design home treadmills for people who want to get their Madonna on. I suggest you buy one on Amazon. Soon. Don't even wait for a sale.

It's not that hot out. Actually, it's never that hot out. Anywhere. In the world. Ever.

You look greasy. Should you be deranged enough to think that this is some sort of dating technique, I can assure you no man/woman/dog is ever going to want to touch you who has witnessed this spectacle. I promise you everyone is imagining how a person that sweaty must smell and then hurriedly crossing over to the other side of the street. Ask me how I know.

I expect all of you to have your clothes on when I walk tomorrow. Thank you.

We actually have a semi-famous walker in our neighborhood who chooses to walk in long pants and a golf shirt (despite the triple digit heat) but tucks his shirt up under his armpits so that his belly is exposed. It's quite something.

You'll be relieved to know that I did not choose a sweaty neighbor as my subject! :) Instead, I used some REAL inspiration that we got on Saturday - RAIN!! And not just a little rain either. A steady downpour that added up to four or five desperately needed inches in a few spots.

I was in Salado for a shoebox swap this weekend and it was so fun. I got to hang out with Jeanne and Anna and Joan and Holly and all the fun girlies at the swap and Salado is such a fun town. Here's the little theater across from where we ate Saturday night - there was some sort of Patsy Cline show happening. This was right before the rain came in.

So I got all snug in my quaint room at the B&B to listen to the rain and colored this image for Bridget's challenge. So sweet. See the glittery raindrops?

Thursday, October 6, 2011

There's no good description for how sad I am that the world has lost such a brilliant man, and lost him far too soon.

I know he had so much more to give.

I'm sad that this is the last of many of my posts that have begun with "Dear Steve Jobs" and usually ended with a hilarious auto-correct, or in one case, the I-Bra. I'm sad for his family and his company and his friends. I'm sad for all of us.

I have been thinking about how much of our lives have been brought to us by Steve Jobs. Our photos, our videos, our tweets, our Facebook feeds, our texts, our LOLcats and our Angry Birds. He made the things that are just a joy to interact with and give us a little anti-gravity in our everyday lives.

There was a joyful and creative human at the center of each of his products.

Other companies' technology seems to be designed to make you feel stupid.

Steve's technology makes us feel like geniuses. And like kids on Christmas morning. And like composers and moviemakers and comedians.

As my brother said, what Steve Jobs did was to provide an amplification of human creativity.

Monday, October 3, 2011

THERE WAS A SCORPION IN HERE. Walking down the hall like he OWNED the place! As a result, I learned two important lessons.

A scorpion is a quick test of your faith. If you see a scorpion in your house walking down the hall in your formerly sacred and inviolate domicile and the first word that escapes your lips (so loudly your neighbors come over, I might add) is NOT that of your Lord and Savior, you are probably an atheist.

Always be prepared to kill something. As I was in flip flops - this is still haunting me as I've replayed an imaginary scenario where the scorpion kills me about a thousand times in my head - and unprepared for the confrontation, it was quickly apparent how important this rule is. Also, I was not about to get close to this beast so that it could jump on my face like that thing in Aliens. I briefly considered shooting it, but that seemed impractical. My training took over. There are some things you have handled so many times that you know their precise heft and density. I had such a thing nearby. It was a full box of Stampin' Up! Catalogs. As anyone who has dragged these in from their porch knows, a full box is HEAVY. I darted around the corner like a ninja and grabbed my box. From a height of four feet, I dropped that sucker on the unsuspecting arachnid like an H-bomb. But I've seen scary movies. I know that you don't go sit down in the living room and weep while that undead beast comes up behind you and finishes you off. I jumped up and down and squished on that thing until it was practically atoms.

Be prepared.

Also, who says stampers aren't the fiercest people on earth? It's not all glitter and ribbon people!!!

Speaking of scary things - well, much less scary than that - how about a little more Halloween goodness?

Last week I did a video of the Sweet Treat Slider technique for Splitcoast and it was so fun! What's cool about this card is that you can keep the candy safe and the card intact - the little slider is a door that lets the person you give it to get the candy out without ripping your cute witch card apart! Fun, eh?

Saturday, October 1, 2011

This is truly the happiest day of the stampy year, when the rest of the world stops what it's doing to admire papercrafters for their contributions to society.

Okay that might have been a dramatization, but all STAMPERS are doing just that! :) Admire yourself! It's your day!

It's also the day we kick off Hope You Can Cling To, our ginormous month long card drive for breast cancer patients at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. This event was so fun last year, and I hope you can make time to join us for some or all of the challenges. There is one new challenge each day for the month of October and a completely amazing list of prizes, provided by our generous sponsors in this great cause.

We had so much fun chatting it up last year and I made some dear, dear friends during the event. I'd love to see you over there!

We always start the event with three challenges - one from each of us on the Splitcoast team - me, Beate and Lori.

You can make any animal - fur, feathers, scales or antennae are fine - and just turn it pink. Use keyword HYCCT1101A when you upload to the Hope You Can Cling To Gallery on Splitcoast to be eligible for prizes!

I chose a feathered critter for my challenge card - from that beautiful Bringing Baby a la carte image. SERIOUSLY so beautiful. I love how he's all top hatted up too. He's so civilized. As you would hope some random bird flying your baby around would be.

So please come play along! And don't forget to have the people around you honor your crafty contributions tonight with dinner and flowers and perhaps a harp concert in your living room.

Oh my gosh - I almost forgot the best news ever for World Cardmaking Day - YOU CAN GET A FREE BIG SHOT!!

I'm not even kidding! The special this month is a FREE Big Shot or $100 in free product if you sign up to be a demonstrator in October. Did I say free Big Shot? Because you can get a free Big Shot. HOLY COW!

Hi. I'm Lydia. I'm the Community Manager at Splitcoast by day, an artist, a teacher and an animal lover in every other moment. .

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Art Unto Others

All of my projects are posted for your instruction & enjoyment. You may recreate these projects to your heart's content and I'll be flattered. I'd love it if you give me credit. It would be cool if you didn't submit them for publication though or sell them and make a million dollars, because that's bad karma. Unless you split it with me. My photos and my words belong completely to me and can't be reused or republished, so you gotta make your own. That means you have an excuse to buy glitter. And unless noted, dearest government officials, I am not compensated in any way for the products I use or discuss.

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